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Blindpot - Season 1

Legion contributor Andrea Levine is recapping and reviewing Blindspot for us this season. Follow her on Twitter @wysefyre!

This week’s Blindspot begins with a lone man at night, trying to get a taxi. One finally appears, and he gets in. Big mistake. This is no ordinary cab. This one comes with the ability to disperse gas to the backseat. Who is this man and why was he taken?

Blindpot - Season 1

Before we answer that, we head over to the Weller apartment. Jane has just arrived, and is greeted by Sarah. She’s so excited to reconnect with “Taylor.” She treats Jane to stories of Weller’s childhood, embarrassing him in ways only family can. Jane accidentally asks about their father, and things get a little awkward. Little Sawyer helps break the tension by asking who Jane is. Things get a little more awkward. Jane abruptly leaves. Weller goes after her, apologizes for rushing things, but Jane bolts.

The next day, two men enter the Municipal Workers Association in Queens. Guns are whipped out and hostages are taken. Within a few minutes of this happening, Patterson gets a hit on one of Jane’s tattoos. It’s the address of the MWA. The team goes to help out.

When they get there, the gunman in charge says they are former workers, recently fired, and they have demands such as getting their pensions back. They’re given a deadline of 30 minutes to make it happen. When the deadline gets close, Weller goes up to the door to ask for more time. The gunman gives it to him. This clues the team in that something else going on, because that was too easy.

During this time, the other gunman had moved a few “troublemaking” hostages to the back room. When it gets closer to the second deadline, he brings them out and hen starts shooting. The team and everyone else breach the building, killing the gunmen.

Everyone is confused as to what just happened, but the answer starts to become a little clearer when Jane and Weller find a hidden room in the basement, filled with dead bodies. Jane also has a little bit of a flashback during this, but we’ll get to that later.

mayfair tom standoff

There’s a dead body tied to a chair. Before Weller can examine the room in greater detail, Deputy Director Tom Carter and the CIA appear. Weller figures out the room is an unauthorized Black Site on US soil, and the holdup upstairs was a smokescreen. Mayfair shows up as well, though we’re not told how she figured out what was going on. Answers are demanded. However, Tom refuses to speak with Jane in the room.

Jane leaves. Tasha goes to check on her. Jane’s way of dealing is to go through the security footage. Apparently she knows how to operate it. Go figure. She also realizes something is off.

Tom explains that the dead man in the chair was Dodi Khalil, a former Pakistani engineer turned CIA asset, also the man who was gassed in the beginning of the episode. The CIA cut him loose when the terror group he was informing on caught wind of him. They left him to die. Since then, he’s held a major grudge against the US. I can’t really blame him for that. But I can blame him for turning his skills to bomb making and joining up with a fringe terror group called “Dabbur Zann.” And with that, Tom and his agents leave.

By now, Jane has figured out what’s off in the security footage. The men weren’t there to kill Dodi. They were there to rescue him. It was a bait and switch, and they used the chaos to get him out. The plan worked well too. Dodi is taken away in an ambulance, and when it’s safe, he kills the EMT with him and escapes.

Weller interrogates two of the so-called “troublemakers” who were taken to the back during the holdup. It’s obvious they were in on the mission, but it’s not until one’s hair starts falling out that Weller and the team realize just how bad the situation really is. The two are suffering from acute radiation poisoning. The gunmen were as well. That’s why no one cared if they died. They were all doing that anyway.

Patterson works out which isotope is in play, Cesium-13. It’s highly unstable. And being Patterson, she can track it. She works out a general location in Queens, gives the team pills to prevent radiation poisoning, and fits everyone with Geiger counters.

However, I’m a little confused as to why she gave them the pills at that precise time, because the team stayed at HQ while other agents went to search for the Cesium. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to give it to them a little later, so it would be stronger in their system, or do the pills need time to work? I’ll google it later.

One team is led to an abandoned industrial warehouse. As they’re describing what they’re seeing, Jane starts having more flashbacks, freaks out and leaves the room. Weller follows. He gets her to calm down some by using himself as a way to ground her. He pulls a Patrick Swayze and places her hand on his heart. Reade interrupts this moment with info as to where the Cesium is.

jane with urn

The Dabbur Zann is smart. Cesium is too dangerous to be around people for prolonged periods of time, so they hid it in a cemetery. The team goes and is greeted by the rest of the Dabbur Zann. Dodi has the Cesium. A gunfight erupts. Most of the Dabbur Zann is taken out, with the exception of Dodi. Jane goes after him. They can’t shoot him, so she knocks him down and gets her hands on the urn. Before Dodi can try and take it back, Weller tackles him.

While Weller and Jane are dealing with Dodi, Tom emerges from behind a tombstone, and looks like he’s about to shoot Jane. Luckily, Mayfair is behind him with a gun to his head, so instead, he and his agents come out and demand Dodi. Mayfair refuses; it’s FBI jurisdiction. To be honest, though, she just wants one day with him to know more about the Dabbur Zane. Tom says sure. They can have Dodi for a day, if he can get Jane. Mayfair gives him Dodi. Good choice, but now these two are definitely at odds with each other.

Later, Mayfair congratulates the team on their good work, and they discuss Jane’s tats. Weller feels they are pointing to crimes involving government corruption, but Mayfair doesn’t want to call it that yet (gee, I wonder why), and Patterson helps her out by saying she doesn’t care what they mean as long as they are helping prevent crime. Everyone leaves, and Jane thanks Mayfair for not trading her.

Weller takes Jane back to her new safe house. He apologizes to her if he’s unintentionally made things harder for her by his desire to have her be Taylor. He admits it’s because he feels so guilty about the situation. Jane tells him it wasn’t his fault. Then she does a reverse-Swayze, puts his hand on her heart, and tells him he’s her starting point and what she hold on to. Thankfully, they don’t kiss, even though it looks like they really want to. Props to the writers for not going there.

Weller goes home to find his father is waiting there for him. Weller leaves without a word.

tasha reade

The episode closes with Tom in a car, waiting to meet someone. You’d think it was Reade, because throughout the episode Tasha’s been telling him to keep his reservations about Jane to himself or within the group; they need to put up a united front, but no. It’s Tasha herself, and she’s taking a bribe from Tom. This definitely won’t end well.

Other points of interest:

~ Jane’s flashback is a doozy. It’s a continuation of the night she was taken. She was led down stairs and to a room filled with children on mattresses. It was dirty and grimy. She recalls a child in tears. She can’t see the man’s face, but she knows what his hand looks like.

~ Dabbur Zann is taken from an Arabic proverb. “The buzzing of the wasp brings destruction to its nest.” Given how we’ve discovered Tasha is talking to the CIA, I can’t help but think this is going to come back up at some point.

~ Before finding out the betrayal of Tasha, I loved how she and Reade were gossiping about Jane having dinner at Weller’s. Neither of them has been to his place.

~ Mayfair finds out about the conflicting DNA evidence. She’s upset Weller didn’t tell her. He refuses to believe what the tooth revealed. To him, Jane is Taylor. This also means he hasn’t hold Jane about this. This will definitely come back to bite him in the butt.

This episode feels less gimmicky, and definitely has fewer aerials. I like how the chemistry between Weller and Jane keeps building, but to what, we don’t know. That’s how I like my tension. I adore Reade and Tasha’s friendship, which makes her betrayal so much worse. That I’m feeling this way after only five episodes is a testament to the writing and acting. Kudos for that. We know Tom is going to be the big bad for the season, but I really hope they don’t turn him into a cartoon villain. He’s already feeling a little bit like that. The sniper moment was fun, but also overkill. The important thing to take away from all of this is the show finally feels like it’s coming together. It feels better; almost as if it’s gotten over its newbie jitters and is relaxing and letting the story unfold.

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Andrea Levine

Andrea Levine is an East Coast based geek, who has more fandoms than she cares to admit. When she isn't talking about the latest geeky news, she's obsessing over musical theater. Her dream is to successfully bring geekdom and musical theater together (I'm looking at you, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark). You can read more of her exploits as Wysefyre over at [insertgeekhere].